Arrival in Hoi An was easy, our hotel pick up was waiting as promised and upon checking in we were offered a room on the top floor with private balcony and TV for 4quid which we quickly accepted before settling into home number 22 of the trip, Hop Yen Guesthouse. We had read many good things about Hoi An Old Town and after a 5 minute walk from the hotel the road narrowed to an alley and in a matter of steps we were transported back in time to ancient Vietnam. The atmosphere is wonderful with narrow unlit streets, no cars, [View Full Entry]

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Our next stop in Vietnam was Hue (pronounced Hway), we opted for travelling by sleeper train (costing about 15gbp each). The train left Hanoi at 19.50pm (20th October) and arrived in Hue the following day at 11.30am, our compartment slept 4 and by prebooking a hotel whilst we were in Hanoi we ensured a lift was waiting for us at the train station. For the journey we spent the last 100,000 dong (which is about 3.50gbp) we had on us on locally made baguettes, Laughing Cow cheese spread, a few Tiger beers and some water. Unfortunately when we started preparing our [View Full Entry]

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The thought of a 30 hour drive on a pre-war coach along unfinished roads and across another unorganised land border crossed my mind for only a minute before the decision to hop on a plane and be in Hanoi in 50 minutes was made. My fears of a bi-plane emerging from a rusty aircraft hanger also vanished as we arrived at a brand spanking new Vientiane airport (at least something there is finished) and boarded a half empty Vietnam Airlines plane with lots of legroom and before we knew it touched down in country number 4, Vietnam. We had booked a [View Full Entry]

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Laos is a very unspoilt country, this means the scenery is not ruined by high rise buildings (though you have to beware of unexploded bombs from the Americans in the 70's), it also means that the transport system is not anything like we have in the UK....for a start there are no trains!! The easiest and cheapest way to get from Luang Prabang to Vientiane (the capital of Laos) is by bus travelling down route 13, it is possible to stop about two thirds of the way down at Vang Vieng to break the journey up. Previous to our trip we [View Full Entry]

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So here we are 1 whole month into our journey! Our Lonely Planet is looking suitably travel worn, I have more hair on my face than my head and we keep seeing the same people everywhere we go. "There's that Ginger guy we saw in Bangkok!!" etc......, we have officially become part of the Lonely Planet set (spot us all standing on street corners reading LP South East asia on a show string, looking confused and being hassled by Tuk-Tuk drivers), Monks keep flirting with Carla (we think they may have heard rumours about 'touching' from Monk-chat) and we have met [View Full Entry]

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Our final night in Pai was Tuesday 26th September. We went to Buffalo Exchange where Matt ended up getting up to play songs on a guitar. It was a really good night and the whisky we were drinking may have been the driving force behind his solo act (later accompanied by a German called Seb on bongos). As we left we bumped into Carrie and Conor (the Canadians from Chiang Mai), and the following day walking round Pai we kept bumping into people we had met, both there and in Chiang Mai, starting to feel like you live somewhere when you [View Full Entry]

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The vision of bare back elephant riding through unspoilt countryside without any German package tourists within 100 miles was starting to seem a distant dream after our brief elephant experience in Chiang Mai. But after reading a tiny paragraph in some new Thai guide-book we have picked up my hopes were re-ignited!!! "Find Pai elephant Tours office in Pai, ask for Khum Thom and you're away!!!" So we did, although the fiver price tag didn't involve any transport to and from the elephant camp as coach tours tend not to exist this far north in Thailand, but as we had very [View Full Entry]

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I had high hopes for Pai and as soon as we arrived (after a 4 hour roller coaster of a bus ride) I wasn't disappointed. It is labelled as some sort of hippy commune with very little Thai influence, but that couldn't be further from the truth!! OK the majority of people here are backpackers who aren't Thai but the place still feels like a million miles from home as Brits, Australians, Israelies, Italians and Germans (yes they get here as well) etc all just relax after busy cities or take stock after exhausting travels through neighbouring countries (Laos, Burma and [View Full Entry]

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Taking the sleeper train from Bangkok to Chaing Mai is, in theory, a great idea. First class accommodation is only 15 quid each and this, we were told, means a compartment with 2 beds, a shower room and loo. The journey takes around 14 hours so with a departure at 7.35pm and arrival scheduled for 9.20am you can sleep through the night (saving on hotel costs - see previous posts on being thrifty) and awake refreshed and ready to explore. Now here comes the but......somewhere along the line we had been misinformed about the shower/loo combo and we had two loos [View Full Entry]

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Firstly i must announce that i write this blog with no hair as i have shaved it all off !!! My attempts to get Carla to do the same have yet been unsuccessful, but watch this space. We arrived in Bangkok after 2 flights from Japan and after easily finding our taxi and a 100mph trip thru rush hour which reminded me of playing Outrun (remember that??) we arrived at our hotel base close to Siam Sq late on Sunday evening. The 4 stars awarded to this place prob were given in 1986 and the decor hasn't changed since - very [View Full Entry]

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